Searching for emotion or race: Task-irrelevant facial cues have asymmetrical effects

Facial cues of threat such as anger and other race membership are detected preferentially in visual search tasks. However, it remains unclear whether these facial cues interact in visual search. If both cues equally facilitate search, a symmetrical interaction would be predicted; anger cues should facilitate detection of other race faces and cues of other race membership should facilitate detection of anger. Past research investigating this race by emotional expression interaction in categorisation tasks revealed an asymmetrical interaction. This suggests that cues of other race membership may facilitate the detection of angry faces but not vice versa. Utilising the same stimuli and procedures across two search tasks, participants were asked to search for targets defined by either race or emotional expression. Contrary to the results revealed in the categorisation paradigm, cues of anger facilitated detection of other race faces whereas differences in race did not differentially influence detection of emotion targets.     

Optimal versus heuristic planning of object manipulations: A review and a computational model of the continuous end-state comfort effect

Human beings select actions that facilitate the execution of later actions. For example, humans tend to select grasps that ensure that forthcoming object manipulations end in a comfortable posture (“end-state comfort effect”). Basic experimental results and their explanation within the optimal control framework are reviewed. I conclude that the discrete grasp selection tasks, which are commonly used to study anticipatory planning, leave room for alternative explanations. Moreover, the results of seven experiments employing a continuous grasp selection task seem incompatible with the optimal control (of end-state comfort) account. I introduce the weighted integration of multiple biases (WIMB) model, which accounts for many aspects of the selection of human grasp orientations in continuous tasks. Additionally, it accounts for the precision effect and hysteresis effect. The model shows that the brain may rely on a simple heuristic and does not actually has to anticipate the end-state of a movement to select effective grasps for object manipulations.     

Interference Effects in a Numerical Stroop Paradigm in 9- to 12-year-old Children with ADHD-C

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by deficient self-regulation, poor attentional control, and poor response inhibition. To date, however, the extent to which these deficits affect basic interference control remains a matter of controversy. Secondly, ADHD has been reported to be associated with arithmetic deficits. It remains unclear whether such deficits are a secondary consequence of the above-mentioned characteristics of ADHD or whether basic numerical magnitude representations are also affected. In the present study we attempted to investigate these issues using a basic numerical interference paradigm.

Nine- to twelve-year-old children with ADHD-C (attention-deficit hyperactivity-disorder combined type) and control children without ADHD (each n = 16) were presented with two digits of possibly different physical sizes (e.g., 3 7). This numerical Stroop task requires subjects to make a magnitude classification concerning either the physical or the numerical stimulus dimension. The irrelevant dimension can be congruent (same response), incongruent (different response), or neutral (no response association).

Children with ADHD-C performed worse than control children in most analyses. The most important finding was a significant interaction of congruity effects with group in the numerical comparison task. Children with ADHD-C tended to show larger congruity and interference effects than controls, and these were not attributable to a speed-accuracy trade-off.

The results might reflect differential processing speeds, or a different degree of automatic activation of physical and numerical magnitudes in children with and without ADHD-C. Alternative explanations, such as insufficient inhibition of selective (domain-specific) attention are also discussed.     

Trait anxiety and trait anger measured by ecological momentary assessment and their correspondence with traditional trait questionnaires

Ecological momentary assessments (EMA) of anxiety and anger/hostility were obtained every 25–30 min over two 24-h periods, separated by a median of 6 months, from 165 employees at a university in the Northeast. We used a multilevel trait-state-error structural equation model to estimate: (1) the proportion of variance in EMA anxiety and anger/hostility attributable to stable trait-like individual differences; (2) the correspondence between these trait-like components of EMA anxiety and anger/hostility and traditional questionnaire measures of each construct; and (3) the test–retest correlation between two 24-h averages obtained several months apart. After adjustment for measurement error, more than half the total variance in EMA reports of anxiety and anger/hostility is attributable to stable trait-like individual differences; however, the trait-like component of each construct is only modestly correlated with questionnaire measures of that construct. The 6-month “test–retest” correlations of latent variables representing the true 24-h EMA average anxiety and average anger are quite high (r ? 0.83). This study represents the longest follow-up period over which EMA-based estimates of traits have been examined. The results suggest that although the trait component (individual differences) of EMA momentary ratings of anxiety and anger is larger than the state component, traditional self-report questionnaires of trait anxiety and anger correspond only weakly with EMA-defined traits.     

Prediction of toddlers’ expressive language from maternal sensitivity and toddlers’ anger expressions: A developmental perspective

Despite evidence for the importance of individual differences in expressive language during toddlerhood in predicting later literacy skills, few researchers have examined individual and contextual factors related to language abilities across the toddler years. Furthermore, a gap remains in the literature about the extent to which the relations of negative emotions and parenting to language skills may differ for girls and boys. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to investigate the associations among maternal sensitivity, children's observed anger reactivity, and expressive language when children were 18 (T1; n = 247) and 30 (T2; n = 216) months. At each age, mothers reported on their toddlers’ expressive language, and mothers’ sensitive parenting behavior was observed during an unstructured free-play task. Toddlers’ anger expressions were observed during an emotion-eliciting task. Using path modeling, results showed few relations at T1. At T2, maternal sensitivity was negatively related to anger, and in turn, anger was associated with lower language skills. However, moderation analyses showed that these findings were significant for boys but not for girls. In addition, T1 maternal sensitivity and anger positively predicted expressive language longitudinally for both sexes. Findings suggest that the relations between maternal sensitivity, anger reactivity and expressive language may vary depending on the child's developmental stage and sex.     

The Effect of Terror on Institutional Trust: New Evidence from the 3/11 Madrid Terrorist Attack

Research from the United States suggests that the 9/11 terrorist attack increased trust in political institutions by creating a “rally effect.” In this research note we analyze Eurobarometer data collected immediately before and after the March 11, 2004 terrorist attack in Madrid to replicate and extend previous findings from the United States. We report that, first, trust in different types of institutions (political, media, justice) increased significantly immediately after the Madrid terrorist attack; second, the effect of the attack varied systematically across different types of institutions; and, third, the effect was generally short‐lived. Our results suggest that the rally effect of terror on trust in institutions generalizes across national contexts but also that the effect differs across types of institutions.     

Enhanced Cardiac Perception Is Associated With Increased Susceptibility to Framing Effects

Previous studies suggest in line with dual process models that interoceptive skills affect controlled decisions via automatic or implicit processing. The “framing effect” is considered to capture implicit effects of task‐irrelevant emotional stimuli on decision‐making. We hypothesized that cardiac awareness, as a measure of interoceptive skills, is positively associated with susceptibility to the framing effect. Forty volunteers performed a risky‐choice framing task in which the effect of loss versus gain frames on decisions based on identical information was assessed. The results show a positive association between cardiac awareness and the framing effect, accounting for 24% of the variance in the framing effect. These findings demonstrate that good interoceptive skills are linked to poorer performance in risky choices based on ambivalent information when implicit bias is induced by task‐irrelevant emotional information. These findings support a dual process perspective on decision‐making and suggest that interoceptive skills mediate effects of implicit bias on decisions.     

The Mechanisms of Space‐Time Association: Comparing Motor and Perceptual Contributions in Time Reproduction

The spatial‐temporal association indicates that time is represented spatially along a left‐to‐right line. It is unclear whether the spatial‐temporal association is mainly related to a perceptual or a motor component. In addition, the spatial‐temporal association is not consistently found using a time reproduction task. Our rationale for this finding is that, classically, a non‐lateralized button for performing the task has been used. Using two lateralized response buttons, the aim of the study was to find a spatial‐temporal association in a time reproduction task. To account for the perceptual component, reference and target stimuli were presented in different spaces through four experiments. In all experiments, a Spatial‐Temporal Association of Response Codes (STEARC) effect was found and this effect was not modulated by the spatial position of both reference and target stimuli. The results suggested that the spatial‐temporal association was mainly derived from the spatial information provided by response buttons, reflecting a motor but not visuospatial influence.     

依赖于唤醒与效价的情绪记忆增强效应：自动与控制加工*

情绪记忆增强(Emotionally Enhanced Memory, EEM)效应受到刺激的唤醒度和效价的影响。Kensinger 等人提出依赖于唤醒的 EEM 效应与自动加工相联系,依赖于效价的 EEM 效应与控制加工相联系。然而现有研究并不能为这一假设提供充分的证据。本研究的三个实验采用学习--再认范式和 DA 范式(divided attention paradigm)相结合的方法,分别考察了在两种注意条件下依赖于唤醒和依赖于效价的EEM 效应在编码阶段的加工机制。结果发现,中性词、正性非唤醒词、负性非唤醒词在集中注意条件下的记忆再认成绩显著高于分散注意条件下的记忆再认成绩;正性唤醒词在集中注意条件下的记忆再认成绩也显著高于分散注意条件下的记忆再认成绩,但负性唤醒词的记忆再认成绩在两种注意条件下不存在显著差异。这表明依赖于效价的 EEM 效应与控制加工相联系,而依赖于唤醒的 EEM 效应并不总是与自动加工相联系,其加工还受到情绪效价的调节,对于负性刺激,依赖于唤醒的 EEM 效应与自动加工相联系;对于正性刺激,依赖于唤醒的EEM效应则与控制加工相联系。     

A group comparison of those with hypertension and other chronic illness: A factor and item level analysis of anger and hostility

Abstract

A considerable body of research has suggested that essential hypertension is related to both expressed anger and suppressed hostility. This study suggests and provides some evidence that these reported results may simply have arisen as the result of a lack of proper statistical control and differential item functioning across the items on which the measures were based. Three groups of respondents were selected (a) those diagnosed as having hypertension (b) a group who admitted to having a chronic medical condition unrelated to hypertension and (c) individuals who did not have a chronic medical condition. A confirmatory factor model was used to test the structure of a measure of expressed anger and suppressed hostility. Differences were then examined across the three conditions at both the factor and item levels within a MIMIC structure and controlling for age and gender. Differential effects were found between females and males on two observed measures of expressed anger. Age had a direct effect on both the measure of expressed anger and suppressed hostility. After the effects of age and gender were controlled, no statistically significant group differences were found. Previous results indicating a difference on expressed anger and suppressed hostility may, as in the present analysis, be put down to a combination of lack of appropriate statistical control, and to ignoring the differential pattern of responding across the observed measures.